


Best buds we'll always be

by paperjamBipper



Category: We Bare Bears (TV)
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Multi, Oblivious Pining, Panda's here in spirit, Talking, mostly through charlie's gushing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24480853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperjamBipper/pseuds/paperjamBipper
Summary: Charlie has a lot of complicated feelings about Panda, and a lot of complicated ways he wants to express them. Only problem is that he doesn't have right words to describe them quite yet.Maybe his brothers can help.
Relationships: Charlie & Grizz (We Bare Bears), Charlie/Panda (We Bare Bears), Grizz & Ice Bear & Panda (We Bare Bears)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 64





	Best buds we'll always be

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired directly by the cut song that Louie Zong recently posted to his twitter. I strongly recommend giving it a listen if you haven't! https://twitter.com/everydaylouie/status/1264644463487356928?s=20. lyrics are mentioned in passing, but if you wanna know what song Charlie talks about throughout the fic, it's this one! ^ 
> 
> Also, yes, I know the first few paragraphs feel really out of place. They'll make sense in context, I promise.

_“What are we going to do?” Nurse Cyndi cried out, desperately clinging to Doctor Axeman’s white lab coat. “If they’ve managed to break into the hospital, there’s no telling when they’ll break into the lab!”_

_“Nonsense, my dear”, Dr. Axeman replies, giving his female companion a tight, assuring squeeze of the shoulder. “We’re on the tenth floor. The only way they’d be able to reach us is if they could get the elevator working, and everyone knows that a brainless zombie is a dumb one”._

_“That’s just the thing, doctor”, Cyndi explains, pulling a small notebook out of the pocket of her own lab coat. “I’ve been doing my own research on the string of mutations that’s been turning everyone. If my calculations are correct…” she flips to a specific page, and holds it up to Doctor Axeman to reveal a rough sketch of a zombie with wings protruding from its head. “The mutation will continue to spread until they are able to transform themselves in order to adapt to any obstacles that stand in their way.” She clamps her notebook shut and places it back into her pocket. “If they need to run faster to infect more people, they’ll grow an extra pair of legs. If they catch word that we have the early tests of the antidote in this lab, or even that we’re the last left to be infected…” She shakes her head. “They’ll find a way”._

_“Well…” Doctor Axeman cracks his knuckles. “Then I’ll just have to find a way to stop them if they break in”._

_“But what if-?!?”_

_He turns to her, and grabs both of her shoulders. “You’re the one making strides in the antidote, Cyndi, I know you can solve it, even if something terrible happens to me”._

_As if on cue, there’s the sound of glass shattering, and when they both turn, a zombie’s hand is reaching through the shattered glass of the door to turn the doorknob._

_“Stay behind me” he tells her, and slowly makes his way over to the back wall of the lab, where there are two glass boxes. One reads “BREAK IN CASE OF FIRE”, containing a fire extinguisher, and the other reads “BREAK IN CASE OF ZOMBIES”, containing a sharp, black axe with a blood red handle. Doctor Axeman rams his shoulder into the latter, and takes the axe out._

_The blade gleams in his hand, and he smirks. With a flick of his wrist, the axe flies out of his hand, slicing off the head of six zombies at once before returning to his hand, and-_

The movie jolts to a halt when someone reaches across the couch to pause the TV. 

“Ice Bear is offended by lack of aerodynamic knowledge”. He crosses his arms against his chest and glares at the television set. 

“I know, I know” Grizz smirks, nudging at Ice’s shoulder with his elbow, “You can’t actually throw an axe like a boomerang”

Ice Bear shakes his head. “That’s not the problem. Ice Bear has made dozens of boomerang axes before. Doctor Axeman has not taken the velocity of the blade in comparison to the wood type of the handle into consideration. Blade of that size would likely shatter through the wall and never come back”. He nods solemnly, and blinks when he notices that Grizz is staring at him like he’s got three heads. “Plus...Ice Bear think that acting was far too slow”.

“Ugh, I _know, right?”_ Grizz tosses his arms in the air dramatically. “Like, I know you’re trying to kill time to make the zombie arm smashing through the window feel more dramatic, but there’s so much more you could’ve done instead! And what was with the emergency supplies suddenly appearing on the wall out of nowhere? I _know_ those weren’t hanging on the wall when they were talking five minutes ago”.

“Maybe brother is right to be scared of these movies”

“Hah! You’re right. Maybe we should listen to him the next time he says he’s too scared to watch one of these” He catches a glance at the time displayed on the cable box below the TV, and takes the remote back from Ice. “Eh, we should probably try and finish it before he gets back, though, or we’ll never see if it gets any better”.

There’s the sound of the window smashing open again, followed by the sound of a vase smashing to the ground.

“Huh…” Grizz taps his chin with his paw. “Must’ve rewound by mistake. I don’t remember hearing the random vase smashing the first time, though”.

Ice Bear grabs onto Grizz’s shoulder, and points towards the television. “Still paused”.

The color fades from Grizz’s face. “Y-you don’t think...?”

Ice Bear shakes his head, but then backtracks and taps a paw to his chin as well. He stands from his seat on the couch, grabbing his axe from where he’d just been sitting, and turns to Grizz. “Stay here”. He says, and heads towards the direction of the kitchen. 

After a few moments Grizz hears the sound of Ice dropping his axe and jumps to his feet. “ _Little bro?”_ he shouts, and runs towards the direction he’d seen Ice slink off to. “ _Little bro, are you-”_ he shouts again, but he’s interrupted when he smacks right into Ice, his axe sitting at his feet. Okay, that answers one question, but if Ice wasn’t taken away by a zombie, and he’s not fighting off the zombie that broke into their kitchen, then…what could’ve possibly made that noise? Grizz follows Ice’s gaze, only to find-

_“Charlie?”_ Grizz exclaims, and, visibly spooked by the call of his name, Charlie smacks his head on the cupboard he’d been rummaging through prior. He’s got a stack of papers under one arm, and a handful of art supplies in the other. 

“Bears!” Charlie exclaims once he turns to face them, struggling not to drop his load of supplies. He places them down on the closest surface he can find, and rubs at the back of his neck. “I didn’t think you’d be home this time of day!” 

Grizz and Ice exchange glances. “At...two in the afternoon?” 

“Yeah! Well, I figured, it’s so sunny out, I thought for sure you must be out getting yourselves cups of that fancy tea stuff you’re always talking about!” 

“You mean boba?” Grizz asks, but then he shakes his head. “Wait, no. That’s not important. What are you doing here? I mean, you’re always welcome to come hang with us, but why would you wanna be here when we’re _not?_ Doesn’t that, like, defeat the purpose of hanging out?”

Charlie blushes, and rubs at the back of his head, but before he even answers the question at hand, he squints at the pair of brothers. “Hey, wait a minute,” he jabs a finger in their direction. “Where’s Pan-Man?” 

“Panda is taking a final” 

“Oh, yeah! Panda’s been at the community college taking his art final for the past hour or so. He should be back in about 45 minutes or so”. Grizz gestures back towards the living room. “We were actually watching a scary movie while we waited for him to come home. You wanna join us?”

“Not that scary”, Ice interjects.

“Well, yeah,” Grizz nods. “It’s actually one of the tamest horror movies I’ve ever seen. But Panda doesn’t like watching them, so our only opportunity to check out the ones we haven’t seen is when he isn’t home”.

“Heh, no thanks, fellas, I don’t know how well a scary movie would sit with me, either.” Charlie holds his hands up and takes a few steps back. He bumps into the counter, and one of the markers he’d placed there rolls onto the floor. As he’s bending over to pick it up, an idea seems to come to him.

“Actually, fellas…” he murmurs, looking at the marker in his hand like it’s the most important object in the world. “There might be something you’d be able to help me with. Was tryin’ to come by at a point all of you would be out, so I knew Panda’d probably be with you, but...he _is_ the only one I don’t want to see until it’s ready, so…” he turns his gaze over to them. “You think you can help a guy out? I promise we’ll be done before he’s finished with his art thingy”. 

Grizz glances back towards the television, and then towards his little brother, who only responds by nodding his head. “....sure, Charlie” he shrugs, because anything’s gotta be better than the way that movie is turning out. 

“Great!” Charlie beams, and before Grizz can even ask what he even _agreed_ to Charlie grabs him by the wrist and drags him out the door. He drags him out of the cave, and guides him aimlessly through the woods until they come across what appears to be a hand-built stage for a puppet show. “Here we are!” he exclaims. “Cute, innit?” he grins, and runs his hand across the wood.

“Did you…” Grizz approaches, walking in a circle around the miniature stage. “Build this stage yourself?” 

“Sure did!” Charlie grins, placing a cautious hand on the stage. “Still can’t figure out how to make it so I can...actually put some weight on it, without breaking it, but I finally got it to stand all by itself!”

“That’s great!” Grizz applauds. “What do you need our help for, then? I think it looks great as it is!” 

“Aww, shucks…” Charlie blushes. “This is just the stage! I need your help with the show”. 

“The...show?”

“Yeah! Oh man, I can’t _wait_ to see the look on PanPan’s face when he sees it” he sighs blissfully, but then he shakes his head. “I guess that’s the part I need help with, y’see? I want the show to be _perfect_ for him. I already have the little me done, see?” he reaches behind the stage and pulls out a tiny marionette version of himself. “You caught me just as I was sneaking in to make Panda’s!” he holds his arts and craft materials to his chest. “There’s just no perfect way to capture him in puppet form, y’know?” 

“And you want us to…help you with that?” 

“Hmm?” Charlie muses, as if he hadn’t realized he’d said that last part out loud. “Oh, no, I just wanted your help with the script! Y’see, I already have the big song and dance number finished, I just wanted your help with all the fancy other stuff, since I know you guys are super into that video-making website.”

“I mean…” Grizz pauses to ponder…..literally everything that’s going on. “I mean, I’d love to, but...what’s all this for? Why now?” 

“N’aww, that part’s easy!” he grins. “Remember when Panda let me keep that beautiful painting he did of me?”

“You mean the one he did a few months ago?”

“Yeah! Well, y’see, it’s all I’ve been able to think about! He worked so hard to show me how special I am to him, that, well, I wanted to do the same for him” he’s looking to the ground, and there’s a pale blue blush spreading across his cheeks. When he meets Grizz’s eyes again and realizes that Grizz is staring, he grins awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Oh geez, I got all sappy just there, didn’t I? I can try and tone it down, if you don’t think Panda’ll-”

“ _Stop talking,”_ Grizz nearly shouts, covering Charlie’s mouth with one of his paws. “Are you kidding? Panda _loves_ sap. If anything, I think you should increase the sap tenfold!”

Stars form in Charlie’s eyes. “Does that mean you’ll help me?” 

“Of course we’ll help you!” Grizz beams, and copies Charlie’s earlier gesture of suddenly grabbing Charlie’s wrist. “C’mon! We have to hurry home before Panda beats us there!”

~~

“Okay,” Grizz says, as he paces back and forth in front of the couch where Ice and Charlie are sitting. “You wanna sweep Panda off of his feet? Nobody knows PanPan better than us. Isn’t that right, little bro?”

Ice Bear nods. “Friends have an end. Brotherhood lasts forever”.

“Exactly! We know everything there is to know about our Panda. Even the super embarrassing stuff he thinks nobody knows about. If you really wanna know how to wow our Panda, you’ve come to the right guys.” He jabs a paw in Charlie’s direction. “ _Now,_ show me that song you told me you’ve been working on”. 

“Sure thing!” Charlie beams, and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper from a fold in his fur. “I haven’t figured out all the fancy musical notes and things yet, but I wrote the lyrics down so I couldn’t forget them!” 

Grizz swipes the paper from him a little more harshly than he should, but he can’t _help it!_ Not only has someone finally written Panda a love song, but it’s from his _best friend?_ Panda’s gonna _die_ when he finds out that he’s living in a real-life friend to lovers fanfic!

But the more he reads the lyrics, the more his smile fades, because this is…..the _friendliest_ love song he’s ever read. 

“Uh….Charlie?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Don’t you think this…..undermines your feelings a bit?”

“Hmm? What makes you say that?” Charlie peers over his shoulder. “I thought I made it loud and clear”

“Oh, you did! You did. I’m just thinking it might seem a bit….weak?”

“Huh.” Charlie sits back. “I thought it was pretty great! Maybe you just need to see it to really _get_ it, y’know? Just doesn’t feel the same without them cute little hearts floating over our heads”

_Hearts._

_Wait a minute._

“Charlie, if I may ask a totally unrelated question that’ll help to improve your show tons, how do you...feel about Panda?”

“Aw, that’s what the whole show’s about! He’s my best bud in the whole wide world. I wanna be there for him, just like he’s always there for me”.

That’s an understatement, if Grizz ever heard one, but he clamps down on saying that out loud. “Yeah? What else?” 

“Well, he’s just about the cutest guy I’d ever seen. I had a few other verses in there too, about his them patches around his eyes and his cute little ears, but at that point the song was longer than the actual show, hehe…” he’s avoiding eye contact again, blushing just as hard as he’d been when they were talking in the forest. 

“This is good, this is good…” Grizz encourages, fully acknowledging that at this point he just wants to see how long Charlie can gush about Panda in a single sitting. “Keep going. This is _really_ good material for your show”. 

“Well…” Charlie grins, his blush getting visibly darker by the second. “His laugh is incredible, and it’s inspiring how passionate he gets, and golly, he’s so much fun, I feel like the luckiest guy alive when I get to spend time with him” he sighs, and at this point he’s either _that_ blissfully aware of how hard he’s blushing right now or he’s just teasing Grizz right back. 

“Alright, alright…” Grizz taps on the lyrics sheet. “One more question, so we can really get to work on the rest of the show”

“Yeah?”

Grizz glances over at Ice, whose only response is a silent nod of approval. 

“Have you ever been in love before?” 

Charlie tenses at the question, his eyes going wide. “P-pardon?”

“Y’know, like the way Panda’s always talking about his crushes, have you ever felt like that about anyone before?”

Charlie sits back, bringing a hand to his forehead like he’s got a headache. “Geez, fellas, that sure is a loaded question, I…” he sighs, darting his gaze between the two brothers.

Grizz frowns. “You’re right. That was too far, I’m sorry”

Charlie shakes his head. “No, no, you have it all wrong. I don’t….think that’s far enough”

“Huh?”

“I mean…” Charlie brings his knees to his chest. “I have no idea what that’s supposed to feel like. I’ve had so few _actual_ friends that it’s...a bit tricky for me to think about that other sort of stuff”. 

“Well, we’d be glad to help” Grizz smiles. “If you’d like to” he places a reassuring paw on Charlie’s lap. “Just a few more questions, okay? You don’t have to answer anything you’re uncomfortable answering”.

Charlie closes his eyes, but nods his head. “Okay”.

“You say that you feel super lucky to spend time with Panda, right? Well, do you think you feel that way because you’re happy to be hanging out with one of your friends, or do you only feel that way about Panda?”

“Well…” Charlie ponders for a moment, and sits up. “Y’know, come to think of it, I think you’re right! No offense to you, of course, but something about having alone time with Panda feels extra special to me”.

“And you said you wanted to spend all your time with him, right?”

“A’course! I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be. Gets pretty lonely out there in the woods by myself”. 

“You called him cute, Charlie”.

“N’awww, but who wouldn’t?”

Grizz scrubs a paw down his face. “Here, let me phrase it like this. Bunnies are cute, aren’t they? And you think baby snakes are adorable, for some reason. What about them? Are they the same kind of cute as Panda?”

“Of course not!” Charlie replies, but backtracks once he realizes he answered faster than he meant to. “They’re all cute and fluffy and stuff, but Panda, man, he’s….” he trails off, seemingly unable to find the right words to describe him. 

Grizz smiles at him, and gently pats at his shoulder. “I think you’re in love with him, Charlie”

“Y-Y’think?” he stammers. “I-I dunno, I always thought for sure that he was just my best bud…”

“And he still can be!” Grizz cuts in before Charlie can start to undermine himself again. “People fall in love with their best friends all the time”.

“They do?”

“Of course they do! And people who fall in love with their best friends end up dating them like, 90% of the time”.

“Ninety one point six three percent of the time”, Ice says.

“Exactly! Look, Charlie, what I’m trying to say is that you can be in love with Panda _and_ consider him your best friend at the same time. Most relationships _rely_ on you having a strong friendship with your partner, dude. It’s just a matter of how you treat him that separates your feelings for him as romantic or platonic. Like, yeah, everyone loves hugging their friends, and everyone thinks their friends are cute and people love hanging with their friends, but even the most social people out there want a little time away from their friends, y’know? There’s nothing wrong with a little me-time. And _most_ people don’t have specific aspects that they love about their friends’ appearance. You could say _Wow, your hair looks amazing today, bro!,_ but that’s about the most detail people go into.” He shakes his head. “And don’t even get me _started_ on the kisses, Charlie.” 

He’s blushing a dark blue again. “Golly….” he rubs at the back of his head. “I...I appreciate the help tons, fellas, but if I couldn’t even figure out all those feelings by myself, how am I gonna let Panda know how I feel?”

“I told you, man, that’s what we’re here for!” Grizz grins. “Not to mention that you already have a great start with your puppet show idea. _Too sappy?_ Panda lives and _breathes_ for sappy! He’s gonna love it”.

“Really?” Charlie grins, and Grizz grins back. 

“Of course! All we’d need to do is touch up the music, and that’s what you came to us for in the first place.” He stands, and gestures towards the direction of his bedroom door. “Come with me so we can practice.” He cracks his knuckles. “We’re gonna make this thing so sugary sweet that Panda’s gonna cry _buckets_ when he sees the final product”. 


End file.
